Pointing devices, particularly a mouse and a touchpad, are used as controllers for GUIs widely used in PCs (Personal Computers). Not just as HIs (Human Interfaces) of PCs as in related art, the GUIs are now starting to be used as an interface for AV equipment and game machines used in living rooms etc. with, for example, televisions as image media. Various pointing devices that a user is capable of operating 3-dimensionally are proposed as controllers for the GUIs of this type (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2).
Patent Document 1 discloses an input apparatus including biaxial angular velocity gyroscopes, that is, two angular velocity sensors. Each angular velocity sensor is a vibration-type angular velocity sensor. For example, upon application of an angular velocity with respect to a vibrating body piezoelectrically vibrating at a resonance frequency, Coriolis force is generated in a direction orthogonal to a vibration direction of the vibrating body. The Coriolis force is in proportion with the angular velocity, so detection of the Coriolis force leads to detection of the angular velocity. The input apparatus of Patent Document 1 detects angular velocities about two orthogonal axes by the angular velocity sensors, generates, based on the angular velocities, a command signal as positional information of a cursor or the like displayed by a display means, and transmits it to the control apparatus.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-56743 (paragraphs [0030] and [0031], FIG. 3)
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent No. 3,264,291 (paragraphs [0062] and [0063])